Chiropractic ethical standards

I was recently in a car crash. Yesterday’s mail brings with it an envelope addressed to me containing a letter from a pair of chiropractors inviting “Dear Sir or Madam” who may have been involved in a car crash to come in for a free consulation. In other words, my ambulance was chased. I’m in Wisconsin. Is this solicitation legal? Is it ethical? I’ve searched Google for information on ethical standards for chiropractors and came up dry. Anyone with any expertise (say for example, an actual chiropractor) have any information?

I think you’re looking for ethical standards in the wrong profession.

My understanding is that there’s no scientific evidence that chiropractic can do anything except help back pain in very specific situations. Yet many pactitioners claim to be able to lots more. If they’re willing to bilk their patients, why expect them to behave ethically in recruiting them?

Oh, I agree that chiropractic is voodoo and chiropractors are witch doctors, but it is a licensed, regulated profession. I checked out Wisconsin’s statutes on the subject and poked around the ACA and WCA sites but there’s nothing that specifically addresses my issue. I think I’ve pretty well determined it’s not illegal (as long as certain types of claims about the prowess of the chiropractor are not made) but the ethics of it are another matter.

I’m probably angrier about this than I ought to be, but it just infuriates me that these vultures can troll the public record for my information and then send me an unsolicited offer of (pseudo) medical services.

Just a small hijack (I promise.) The SO and I were in a minor traffic accident about 2 yrs ago involving an ice-covered overpass. He hit a beater (2-toned “spot” car) with his old car (a 91 Pontiac) at a speed of, at most, 20 mph (while avoiding a rear-end on an already-wrecked SUV.) He was being very cautious and did his best to avoid an accident on a night when every single vehicle who went over said overpass hit either another vehicle or the side/s of the overpass. The poor cop-at-the-scene sent everyone home and closed the overpass (he testified at SO’s traffic court date as to the conditions, etc.) To make a long story short, everything was cool. Minor damage. No scary legal problems. Then insurance company gets cranky. They drop SO at first opportunity. He is very curious as to why… and manages to get a copy of the insurance company’s payouts for The Accident. They have paid $14,000 (that’s right, fourteen thousand dollars) to a chiropractor for the folks in the other car. They apparently took the offer that Otto received. Let me again emphasize the slow speed and minor nature of this crash. Car damage was limited to two tiny dents, one per car. Chiropractors (at least most of them) suck.
I recommend Chirobase (Quackwatch’s chiro section) to folks who want to know more about the subject…
http://www.chirobase.org

I think the service chiropractors provide is more psychological than physical. When I was recovering from a bad car accident, I like to go to someone every week who would look me in the eye and ask me how I felt, and really want to know the answer. I think his care sped my recovery if only for the human aspect of another caring person.
On the topic at hand, it doesn’t sound ethical at all, but it doesn’t sound illegal at all. If you want to get him in trouble, copy the ad and send it to the attorney generals office and to the insurer. If anyone can get him in trouble, they might be able to do so.